Stumbling Out of the Gate

Why were iPad launch apps pricier--and buggier--than expected on Day One? We asked the developers.

We had some hints about what to expect from the iPad’s App Store, but it wasn’t until we had the devices in hand that we discovered answers to some of our most pressing questions. How much more expensive than their iPhone counterparts would iPad apps be? (Often quite a bit, it turns out.) How many apps would be universal releases? (Not too many.) And would ad-supported or “lite” versions of popular apps be as plentiful on the larger device? (Not yet, at least.)

Approaching the iPad as an experienced iPhone App Store user creates certain expectations--which may or may not be fair--and one expectation that some early adopters are struggling with is the price points of early iPad apps. By and large, premium iPad apps are priced higher than their iPhone counterparts, and that’s across the board, regardless of genre or functionality.

Why is that? In speaking with developers, we found that the pairing of greater development costs and the smaller installed base of the iPad is at least somewhat to blame because it means each sale needs to generate even more revenue than a comparable iPhone app might.

The Early Edition's developer explains that a richer iPad experience equals "extra development time."

“A good app on the iPad needs to be a richer experience for the user because everything is magnified on a device this size,” explains Graham Clarke of Glasshouse Apps, developer of The Early Edition, an RSS reader for the iPad. “The extra development time and the smaller customer base means it’s harder to recoup your development costs unless you set a reasonable price.”

Marco Arment, developer of Instapaper, echoes this concern: “There are probably about 50 iPhones and iPod touches in operation for every iPad sold so far. It’s harder to ‘make it up in volume’ in a market with a much smaller installed base.”

As the diverse App Store offerings helped fuel the iPhone’s popularity, consumers began expecting lower and lower prices, resulting in dirt-cheap apps that needed to post high sales numbers to turn a profit. As Arment explains, the higher iPad app prices may also be a form of course correction as developers hope to assert a more sustainable pricing structure for worthwhile apps. “Developers realized that iPhone prices are inefficient at best and unsustainable for many,” he says. “The iPad is a chance to realign customers’ expectations for what good software should cost.”

Nate Weiner, founder and developer of Read It Later (coming soon to the iPad), believes that iPad app prices will eventually drop, but says that customers expecting optimized upgrades without paying extra aren’t considering the work needed from developers. “I think a lot of consumers are going to expect that if they bought an app on the iPhone, they should get the same app on the iPad,” he says. “After seeing the amount of work it takes to get the iPad experience right, I don’t particularly find this assumption fair, but I still believe it’ll be the case.”

Instapaper's developer said he did "whatever it took to get it out there on Day One."

And while we haven’t seen a lot of “lite” or ad-supported versions of paid apps on the iPad thus far, it may just be a matter of developers prioritizing resources and seeing how the market develops. Michael Chow, chief operating officer at Newtoy, tells us his company chose to focus on a paid version of the popular word game Words With Friends HD to make the iPad launch window, though it has both paid and ad-supported versions on the iPhone. Newtoy is now exploring how best to bring a free version to the iPad, but Chow says the advertising market is still in flux.

“Because the iPad is a fundamentally different device than the iPhone, its own ad market--and the tech to support it--is still emerging,” says Chow. “It will probably be something of a strange hybrid between the conventional web ad and the mobile ad markets, so we don’t know what to expect yet. But it looks promising.”

Words With Friends HD lacked push-notifications support at launch, but was updated less than a week later.

With just over two months between the iPad’s announcement and its retail availability, developers were in a frenzied rush to get their apps ready in time for the launch date, and in the majority of cases, studios didn’t even have a prerelease iPad on which to test their apps--just a software emulator. As such, it was hardly surprising that some apps launched with bugs or without a complete set of expected features. Push notifications in Words With Friends HD, for example, didn’t work in the initial release, while the launch version of The Early Edition lacked Google Reader support.

Glasshouse’s Clarke concedes that some features had to be sliced from the first release to make launch, but says, “our approach with The Early Edition was always about creating a new way of reading the daily news. In that sense, we haven’t felt the need to compete with other RSS readers feature for feature. To us, the basic reading experience had to come first.” Agile Web Solutions’ 1Password--available in standalone iPad and universal Pro versions--similarly launched with some bugs, but cofounder Dave Teare praised users for their understanding: “Most of the early adopters understood that we’d never tested on a real device and were forgiving in the initial weeks as we ironed out the issues.”

1Password had launch day bugs of the understandable kind--launch day is the first day its developer had access to a real iPad.

But ultimately, developers we spoke to say it was worth it for them--and their fans--to have an iPad-native version available as an option from the start. “I do know our customers appreciated having 1Password available on Day One without needing to use the 2X button,” says Teare. Adds Arment, “I didn’t want to own an iPad without Instapaper on it, and some of Instapaper’s customers told me the same thing, so I decided to do whatever it took to get it out there on Day One.”